Sanofi-Aventis begins legal action against Sandoz

9th August 2006, 0 comments

PARIS, Aug 9, 2006 (AFP) - French pharmaceutical group Sanofi-Aventis said on Wednesday that it had begun action in the United States against Sandoz over US patents for its big selling anti-coagulant treatment Lovenox.

PARIS, Aug 9, 2006 (AFP) - French pharmaceutical group Sanofi-Aventis said on Wednesday that it had begun action in the United States against Sandoz over US patents for its big selling anti-coagulant treatment Lovenox.

Sandoz is a subsidiary of Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis and it specialises in generic medicines.

A spokesman for Sanofi-Aventis said that Sandoz had informed the company by letter that it was going to launch a generic version of Lovenox and would seek regulatory approval to sell it from the US Food and Drug Administration.

The spokesman for Sanofi-Aventis said: "We laid a complaint on August 4 with the US courts to block this copy.

"Sanofi owns the patent for Lovenox in the United States until February 14, 2012."

Lovenox is the biggest-selling drug produced by Sanofi-Aventis.

In the first half of this year it generated sales of 1.24 billion euros, of which 765 million euros arose in the US market, out of total group sales of 14.12 billion euros.

Since Lovenox was launched in 1987 it has been used by more than 170 million patients in 96 countries.

Sanofi-Aventis is already taking legal action in the United States in defence of this patent against US generic drug manufacturer Amphastar and Israeli company Teva.

On April 10, Sanofi-Aventis said that a US federal appeal court had ruled in its favour, overturning a previous decision by a federal court which had found in favour of the two manufacturers of generic treatments. The case is due to go back before a federal court.